devarim

By way of the Homer Counter, I found this Omer calendar listing forty-nine Biblical women upon whose qualities we can meditate on each day of the Omer. There is a kabalistic tradition to assign one of seven sefirot (loosely interpretted as facets or qualities of God) to each of the seven weeks of the Omer, and to then assign one to each day of the week, creating a matrix of sorts where each of the forty-nine days has a unique combination of two sefirot* (or is represented by the doubling of a single sefira). The women assigned to each day embody the particular combination of qualities for that day.

Although I'm coming to this late, I hope to spend a few minutes each day meditating on these women for the remainder of Sefirat haOmer this year. Today's person is Devora, one of my favorite Biblical figures overal. She was a judge, a feminist, a prophet, a poet (basically, everything I want to be). Also, my mother's (Hebrew) name was Devora, so if I didn't love her** enough already, that would only strengthen the connection.

* Yes, there will be two days containing any given combination of two sefirot. However, the order is important as well; each day's concept is defined as the sefira for that day within the sefira for that week. So chesed sheb'gevura("lovingkindness within strength") is different than gevura sheb'chesed ("strength within lovingkindness"). Follow the link -- she explains it better there.

** After I wrote that, I realized that this sentence is ambiguous. Then I decided I like it that way.